It is well known, especially in smaller trucks, to replace the hinged solid tailgate with a flexible net. The net, like a metal barrier, prevents persons and objects from falling off the rear of the truck bed, and may be removed for loading and unloading operations. In addition however, the flexible net offers the advantages of reducing aerodynamic drag and reducing the vehicle weight.
There are, however, shortcomings in the nets currently available in the marketplace, including poor appearance, noisiness, and accelerated wear. Because the nets are not self-supporting, they typically rely on tension created by elastic inlays or the tensioning of individual horizontal webbing straps to create a flat tailgate shape. The problem is that these methods often produce uneven results, such as sagging of the net outside the plane of the tailgate. There may also be considerable high frequency noise generated by flutter and flapping of the net when the vehicle is in motion.
The prior art has made efforts to overcome the abovementioned problems, for example, by adding metallic stiffeners around the periphery of the net, and by adding adjustable straps to connect the net corners to the respective truck bed corners. The edge stiffeners are only partially effective in distributing the tension load throughout the net. In addition, removal of the net and subsequent reinstallation of such nets is a tedious process and tends to wear out the adjustable straps. Further, the tensioning of the net must be readjusted each time the net is removed and reinstalled.